Senator McCain: Restoring American Power

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released “Restoring American Power,” a white paper making recommendations for the defense budget for fiscal years 2018 through 2022. The report details how defense budget cuts under the Budget Control Act have left the military underfunded, undersized, and unready, and lays out a plan to repair, rebuild, and reimagine the military for a wide range of threats facing our nation.

“The President-elect has said he wants to ‘fully eliminate the defense sequester’ and ‘rebuild the military’. I could not agree more,” said Chairman McCain. “This white paper details what I believe will be necessary to achieve these goals: repeal of the Budget Control Act, a $640 billion base defense budget in fiscal year 2018, innovation for the future, and an end to business as usual at the Pentagon. Rebuilding our military will not be cheap—$430 billion above current defense plans over the next five years. But the cost of inaction is worse: we will irreparably damage our military’s ability to deter aggression and conflict. We owe it to our men and women in uniform to chart a better course.”